Equities in Canada’s largest centre took sharp drops Tuesday, as much uncertainty lingered over the U.S. Federal Reserve’s proposed move to lower interest rates and definite drops in oil prices
The S&P/TSX Composite Index dumped 165.21 points or 1.1%, to close Tuesday at 15,379.61
The Canadian dollar shed 0.2 cents at 74.14 cents U.S.
Gold led the downward tremd. as Goldcorp lost 34 cents, or 1.7%, to $19.63, while Barrick Gold tumbled 55 cents, or 2.2%, to $23.99.
Health-care stocks were badly bruised, primarily Valeant Pharmaceuticals, off $1.62, or 10%, to $14.59, on a massive divestiture by investor Bill Ackman. Rival Concordia International dropped 10 cents, or 3.3%, to $2.94.
Materials were also decidedly in the red, as Lundin Mining moved downward 25 cents, or 3.2%, to $7.47, and First Quantum Minerals slid 22 cents, or 1.6%, to $13.38.
A glimmer of hope was offered among tech stocks, as BlackBerry improved six cents to $9.49.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange swooned 11.68 points, or 1.5%, to 792.87
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were down on the day, as gold dulled in price 3%, health-care plummeted 2.8%, and materials suffered 2.6%
The lone holdout was in information technology, squeezing ahead 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks closed slightly lower Tuesday, ahead of a likely interest rate hike, as energy stocks fell.
The Dow Jones Industrials was still negative 43.76 points to finish at 20,837.72. Chevron had the greatest negative impact on the Dow, with Walt Disney and Wal-Mart having the greatest positive impact.
The S&P 500 was dragged down 8.02 points to 2,365.45, due largely to 1% losses in energy issues.
The NASDAQ faded 18.97 points to 5,856.82
The Federal Open Market Committee is set to begin its two-day meeting Tuesday and is expected to raise rates. Traders will be watching for indications on how many more rate hikes to expect this year.
In economic news, wholesale inflation, as measured by the producer price index, gained 0.3% last month. In the 12 months through February, the PPI jumped 2.2%, the biggest advance since March 2012 and ahead of the 2% gain forecast in an economist poll.
Earlier on Tuesday, the National Federation of Independent Business said its small business optimism index fell 0.6 points to 105.3 last month.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note moved slightly ahead, lowering yields to 2.6% from Monday’s 2.62%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost 50 cents to $47.90 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices dropped five dollars to $1,198.10 U.S. an ounce.
